LinkedIn is, without a doubt, THE social media platform to turn to when in need to broaden your business network.
And having an appealing, practical, and catchy LinkedIn summary is one of the most significant parts your profile needs to contain. This is simply because it’s one of the first things people read when considering whether to connect with you.
Unfortunately, not everyone pays attention to it or knows how to compose a quality LinkedIn summary. We’ll help you out.
In this post, we’ll explain what a LinkedIn summary is and why it’s important. We’ll also provide some tips for writing effective summary samples.
So if you’re looking to improve your LinkedIn profile, keep reading!
What is a Linkedin Summary?
Some of us forget to read the essential section of anyone’s LinkedIn profile, i.e., their LinkedIn summary!
You’re probably wondering what, in fact, is a LinkedIn Summary?
A couple of lines appear at the top of your LinkedIn profile, just below your name and headline. Is that it? You’re right on the spot!
In a nutshell, a LinkedIn summary is a brief, first-person description of your professional background and skills. What’s more, having one it’s a great opportunity to showcase your achievements and what makes you unique.
And, yes, this is and should be one of the first things potential employers or clients will see when they view your profile — so it’s important to make a good impression and invest a bit more time when creating one.
Why is a Linkedin Summary so Important?
As we mentioned, your LinkedIn summary is one of the first things potential employers will see when visiting your profile. Therefore, you can think of it as a snapshot that portrays your professional background, experiences, and skills.
On the plus side, you can play things wise and add highlights to it; let’s say any recent accomplishments or projects you have worked on (the ones you feel so proud of).
As a matter of fact, these are just some of the reasons why a LinkedIn summary is important:
- Highlights your professional background and skills.
- Gives potential employers a snapshot of your abilities.
- Use it as a showcase of any recent accomplishments/ projects.
- Show your uniqueness and stand out from other candidates in your field.
- Straight to the point! Use keywords that describe your industry and expertise.
As you see, there are many reasons why you need to sit down and draft a good plan of just what’s so special about you that needs to be read by anyone who visits your profile.
How Often Should I Update My Linkedin Summary?
Well, our research showed that regular updates to your LinkedIn summary are the best signs for employers to notice that you’re keeping up with your skills and experiences.
And, yes, this particular ‘habit’ can make you stand out from other candidates who have outdated information in their summaries and bring an extra exposure of your Linkedin profile.
Tip: Make sure to include industry-specific keywords in your summary. By doing this, you expose yourself more to your field of interest, as it helps potential employers/ clients find you easily when searching for someone with your exact skills and experience.
How To Write a Good Linkedin Summary?
What to put in your LinkedIn summary?
You have more than enough word limit to create a great hook and excellent professional-looking summary. In other words, you have a maximum of 2.000 characters (which is more or less 300 to 500 words).
Here are some tips for writing an excellent and an eye-catching LinkedIn summary:
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- Write in the first person, i.e., use pronouns such as “I” and “me.”
- Create a ‘hook.’ Open your summary with an anecdote, expressing your enthusiasm, addressing something significant you’ve done, or addressing the reader(s) directly.
However, you should definitely avoid starting with a question or using empty words that don’t offer much information.
- Be concise – Remember that there are concise and catchy summaries with more than one paragraph too.
- Use short-lenght paragraphs + bullet points to make it easier for readers to understand what you’ve written.
- Use keywords that describe your industry and expertise — For example, if you are a web developer, you might include keywords such as “HTML,” “CSS,” and “JavaScript.”
- Emphasize your most recent experiences and accomplishments.
- Update your summary regularly to reflect any new experiences/ skills.
- Make sure to include links to your blog or website (if you have one).
- And always proofread your summary for grammar and spelling mistakes.
By following these tips, you can write a LinkedIn summary that will make a great first impression on potential employers out there.
Best Linkedin Summary Examples
Go through these excellent (short) LinkedIn summary samples:
– “I love selling brands. I hate selling myself. So, here’s six quick things about me and my work. In, out, nobody gets hurts.”
– “I love to dig into customer problems and solve them with modern technology. I create, scale and optimize business portfolios that matter.”
– “Human beings are outnumbered by Internet devices. To manage it all we need a new era of networking technology, the Network. Intuitive.”
As you can see, these LinkedIn summaries are all concise, focus on the writer’s most relevant experiences and skills, and include keywords that describe the writer’s industry and expertise.
Conclusion
LinkedIn Summary is a significant section of your LinkedIn profile. It’s the first thing people see when they land on your profile, so it needs to be well-written and capture your unique selling proposition.
Therefore, when writing it, keep in mind that you want to appeal to a broad audience and focus on writing clear and concise sentences that everyone can understand and relate to. If you can do that, you’ll set yourself up for success in connecting with potential employers or clients.
So, there you have some tips to help you write a great LinkedIn summary that will make you stand out from the rest. Moreover, we also provided some brilliant summaries to serve you as an example.
Have you updated your LinkedIn Summary lately? So what are you waiting for?! Get started today and see the results for yourself!
